


Mystery of the Masked Man

by Sugarpuppy



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:34:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23108575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sugarpuppy/pseuds/Sugarpuppy
Summary: You're living on the outskirts of town, only to get robbed by a man in a mask. He comes back to leave an apology, but makes it a point to keep his identity a secret. You make it your mission to find this man and find out who he is.
Relationships: Zuko (Avatar) & Reader, Zuko (Avatar)/Reader
Comments: 4
Kudos: 188





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Robbery  
Living life on the outskirts of town wasn’t always the easiest but it’s certainly easier than being completely homeless. You have your own little campsite in the woods surrounding the town, which includes your own campfire, a tent, and your supplies. The area is relatively safe with low rates of theft, so for the most part, you felt comfortable leaving your “home” to go into town. Whereas you didn’t have your own “job” job, the townspeople are kind enough to give you oddjobs around to help pay for groceries, lamp oil and anything else in between when your art skills aren’t enough to cover the essentials. The best is when they’re kind enough to give you a homecooked meal. It wasn’t money, but it had much more value.  
During your slumber, you hear someone rummaging through your supplies outside the tent. Initially thinking it was an animal, you peak your eye out only to find a masked man taking some food. A rush of fear runs through you, along with anger before you realize you too were once in his position. Coming out of your tent, you say “Take what you need. If you’re resorting to stealing, then you probably need it more than I do.” He’s shocked by you, not initially realizing that you were standing there and in a state of shock, he stands there with a knife at you. He doesn’t seem to threaten you with it, as he’s slowly walking away, more so just to keep you away.  
He runs off into the woods and the darkness engulfs him until he’s out of your sight, and you, too exhausted to deal with the situation, decide to do an inventory check the next morning.  
In the early hours of the morning, you decide to check what was taken from you. Bread that was supposed to last the rest of the week. 4 days’ worth of fuel for your lamps, and some fish you decided to splurge on. You’re upset by the loss, but you think to yourself that if he really needed it, then maybe not all was lost.  
Time to get the day going and hustle your way to get your necessities back. Stopping by shopkeep after shopkeep to see if they need anything swept, dusted, delivered and then running to locals’ homes to see if they need any errands ran. You end up at your last home, with just enough daylight to do some quick grocery shopping. Once you’re finished with your own errands, however, you’re too tired to even cook. As soon as you get to your campsite, you absolutely collapse.  
You hear some leaves cracking and after the incident from the night before, you snap your eyes open and get your knife to run out and confront the thief.  
“You took what you did last time, but at some point, you’re gonna need to fend for yourself!” The idea of being a victim makes your blood boil, and you hate the idea that someone would take advantage of kindness, especially during war times.  
Before fully assessing the situation, you realize he has something in his hands which he drops in a state of shock and runs off again. “Wait!”, you yell out as the darkness and thickness of the woods consumes him yet again. You approach the dropped items, only to find that it was food, along with a note that says, “Sorry.”  
You stand there in disbelief, and just look out into the dark woods, before you go back to bed and just lie awake for a few hours before exhaustion creeps up and soothes you.


	2. Finding Him

A few weeks have passed since the incidence with no contact from this enigma. Although you’ve moved on for the most part, something still gnaws at you and you remain in disbelief. It’s at this point where you make it a mission to find this man.  
Whilst you’re out doing odd jobs for people, you’ll occasionally ask the locals if there have been any robberies in the area. Most people said no, some said yes, but due to the sporadic nature of the robberies, you couldn’t pinpoint where he could be next. It wasn’t until you were walking home, where you overheard a couple of policemen talking about the recent influx of robberies within the northern site of the town. They had admitted that they’d been patrolling the area but with little to no luck as the thief always manages to outrun them.  
You use this information to your advantage and make your plot. You wanted to meet with this person, but the issue here was the police who was also on the lookout for him. This would prove to be a problem because you know that if, or once, he gets taken in, there would be no chance of you talking to him or finding out who he is. Once a prisoner is taken, they don’t come back, and they don’t get spoken of.   
Once it gets dark, you come to the police with a faux story of the thief being seen in the southern region who has made off with your stuff. The police quickly assume their stance, and make their way towards the southern region, thus leaving the northern region to your advantage. You knew you had to act fast before the trail runs cold and both you and the police are out of luck.   
With your map, you make your way through the thick wilderness and using the stars as a sort of compass, as yours was stolen and wasn’t amongst the items of things returned. Over the course of the night, the moon has shifted too much, and you have given up.   
When you start making your way back to camp however, you suddenly spot somebody crouching outside the outskirts of town, peering at 2 young, drunk men with a bag of recent winnings from the street gamblers, stumbling into the street.   
Before he has a chance to pounce, you sneak up behind him, and whisper, “What’re you doing?”  
In retrospect, this wasn’t a good idea as he is a man that has brandished a knife at you before, but in your sneaky and cheeky nature, you thought it’d be a good idea to give him as much of a spook as he’s given you in the past.   
He jumped, and let out a small yell in surprise, falling backwards onto you. You try to push him off, in disbelief that his voice sounds younger than you expected, but he quickly flips and pins you down with the knife to your throat again.  
“What do you think you’re doing?!” he yells at you, before the realization hits.  
Your eyes enlarge in shock that there’s a blade to your throat, as do his when he realizes that you’re the girl he’s robbed a few weeks back. He quickly gets off, mask still on, and looks out to where the drunk men once were. They were gone by that point, and as he starts to make off, you grab him by his ankle, making him tumble.   
“You got away once, and I won’t let you get away again. Who are you? And why do you steal? Why’d you return to me the next night?”   
He stays quiet, whilst you wait for a response.  
“I managed to shake the police off your tail, they’re in the southern region looking for you because of a false report I made, the least you can do is at least answer some questions.”  
It’s in this moment where the moonlight bounces off from the mask, where you see that his mask has fallen off during the tumble. He’s covering his face, and you quietly approach him while he’s facing away, trying to catch a glimpse of his face.  
He was a young man, close to your age. He has a large burn on his eye, but even more important, he’s bleeding profusely out of his nose and has a cut on his lip.  
“Oh.. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to give you a nosebleed. Lemme take you back to my camp, and treat your wounds.”  
He surprises you by pushing you out of the way, only to stand and say “It’s fine, I’ve taken enough from you and you’ve had your revenge.”  
As he tries to make off again, he stumbles only to realize that he rolled his ankle during the fall. At this point, you realize that you can’t let him go off on his own. You force yourself under his shoulder and just start walking him to your campsite, much to his protest and dismay.  
“Listen,” you say, “The police most likely are going to have given up and be making their way up here, if I leave you here and you can’t get away, you’re just asking to get caught.”   
He sees your point and ends his protest.  
This was an interesting beginning.


	3. Campsite

On the walk back, you try to lighten up the mood to reverse the dark atmosphere.  
“You didn’t give me a compass back in the bag,” you say lightheartedly.  
“You said take what you need. I needed it,” he replies sharply with a sneer.   
You look surprised and just looked away after that awkward exchange.   
He sympathetically looked over at you whilst you sadly look at the floor, and the sound of crunching leaves and twigs filling the dead air.  
“My name’s Lee.”  
“My name’s [Y/N].”  
He didn’t say much, and you weren’t sure whether you should keep the conversation going because he seemed to be the quiet type.  
“You know, even with the current weird circumstances, it’s nice to have somebody around. These nights sometimes get lonely, it’s nice helping people out in the daytime but it’s not the same as being alone with someone at night,” you spill out. You feel genuinely grateful to have somebody around, even if they’re not on the same page. He seems to be opening, little by little.  
“Yeah…” he replies, “I guess it’s nice having someone your own age around.”  
“Your own age?” That phrase caught your attention enough for you to accidentally say it out loud.   
“Oh,” realizing he might’ve said something slip out that he shouldn’t have.  
“I travel with my uncle,” he said looking solemnly looking at the ground.  
“Oh. Okay,” you reply, suddenly everything for you seemed to start clicking. His stealing might’ve been to provide for him and his uncle.  
You try to change the subject, “Yeah it really is nice having someone your own age around.”  
You slowly get back to your campsite, letting Lee down slowly as you grab your shoulder, sore from carrying him under your arm for such a walk. You come back out with your small medical kit and get to treating the guy you accidentally injured.  
You get face to face to wipe the blood off his nose and face and clean up any scrapes. As you get closer to him and take notice of what nice skin he has. As your eyes wander, it notices the sudden transition from skin to a shiny, red and smooth scar that covers his eye. You suddenly look away; afraid you’ll bring up an uncomfortable memory.  
As your eyes dart around, you make eye contact with Lee and break it just as quickly, feeling your face and ears burning and realizing you might’ve started blushing.  
As you look up to break any awkward moment that might’ve just occurred and pretending that nothing happened, you see his face only to realize he’s blushing as well, his eyes turned away.  
You get flustered and don’t know how to react, so you just quickly finish treating him and wrapping his ankle, then start setting up for bed.  
“My tents a little small, so you can stay inside considering your condition and I can stay outside.” You’re grateful that the weather has been a lot warmer, so you won’t freeze overnight.  
“Wait,” he says. He’s looking uncomfortable as it looks like he’s trying to muster up some words, “You can stay inside with me if you want. You know, so you won’t have to be in the cold. Or I can just stay outside, this is your…house? After all.” He’s saying all this whilst not even making eye contact with you.  
You’re genuinely astonished, and unsure of how to respond at first. You think it over quickly, thinking it’d be unfair to make him sleep out and wanting the comfort of your own tent.   
“I’m sorry, don’t take this the wrong way but you’re a guy I just met. I don’t think I’m entirely comfortable sharing a room with someone I just met.”   
“That’s okay, I know my request does seem a little much,” he accepts.  
As you get yourself tucked into your new makeshift bed, you slowly close your eyes as the fire in front of you crackles and cradles you to sleep.   
You wake up much later in the middle of the night, shivering as the fire had gone out and the night was much chillier than you expected. Lee doesn’t seem to be able to sleep, and thinking you’re asleep and noticing your shivering, he gives you his blanket to help keep you warm. This surprises you and as he’s tucking you in, still thinking you’re asleep, he rubs the back of his hand on your cheek saying “Goodnight. Sweet dreams.”   
You keep pretending to be asleep and trying as hard as you can to stop yourself from blushing whilst he starts another fire just to sit in front of it, and make sure you’re okay as you sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the slowburn story, I'm just trying to make it seem more legitimate and natural!


End file.
